Toyota to open new Ontario plant

About 1,300 direct new jobs will be created when Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. (TMMC) (Toronto, ON), opens up a new automotive assembly plant in Woodstock, ON, to build the RAV4 sport utility vehicle.
The new plant will open in 2008, and will have the capacity to build 10,000 automobiles annually. It will also have the distinction of being the first assembly plant built on a greenfield site in Canada since 1986, according to Industry Canada.
“Greenfield investments are rare, and new auto assembly investments are coveted worldwide for the significant economic and technology benefits they generate,” said David L. Emerson, Canada’s minister of industry. “This new Toyota plant will bring employment and training opportunities, new infrastructures, advances in environmental technology research and development, and spin-off benefits to related industries.”
The federal government will provide Toyota with $55 million in repayable funding to support pre-production, as well as environmental technologies, in the plant and paint shop. The cost to construct the facility is estimated at about $800 million.
Toyota’s investment in the Woodstock facility resulted from Minister Emerson’s, and Prime Minister Paul Martin’s, January 2005 visit to Tokyo, where they met with Toyota Motor Corp.’s President, Fujio Cho. Cho later approached the federal government and Ontario’s provincial government to help support the project.
Gary Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) has also visited Japan, most recently in April 2005, to promote Canadian OEMs and the country’s automotive industry.
“We have been working long and hard along side TMMC, the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council (CAPC) and other stakeholders to sell this investment opportunity,” he said. “This will be another feather in our cap for our sector and our industry.”
The Woodstock facility will be managed by TMMC in Cambridge, ON, which builds the Toyota Corolla and Matrix, as well as the Lexus RX330. The Cambridge plant employs 4,300 people.Toyota also plans to expand Canadian Autoparts Toyota Inc., in Delta, BC. As a result of the $39 million expansion, wheel capacity at the factory will increase by nearly 17% per year, starting in July 2007.